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Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

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Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#111

Post by kwhitefoot »

Pietertje wrote: post #73
n3on_net wrote: post #26

There are several books I read, still want to increase my reading amount: 1. "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!", nice bio about Feynman 2. "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future", inspiring biography and business book. 3. "Apollo" by Catherine Bly Cox. Awesome book about Apollo Programm. Goes even in some technical details. 4. "Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies". Very go…

I can vouch for the first two of these books: 1. "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!", fun bio, made me buy the Feynman lectures as well. Really glad I did. 2. "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future", Very inspiring indeed.

For those on a limited budget: you don't need to buy the Feynman Lectures if you are willing to read in a web browser.

http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#112

Post by wushupork »

Traction by Justin Mares, Gabriel Weinberg - would probably reread

Growth Hacker Marketing by Ryan Holiday

How to Fail at Almost Everything by Scott Adams - great read Scaling Up By Verne Harnish

Great By Choice by Jim Collins - love the whole series

The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes - probably worth a reread

How to Win at the Sport of Business By Mark Cuban - good read

Elon Mush by Ashlee Vance - need I say more

The Hard Thing about Hard Things By Ben Horowitz

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg - probably need to deeply absorb this - a lot of good stuff

Copy This! By Paul Orfalea - another good "small business" entrepreneur book

The E-Myth Revisited By Michael Gerber - 2nd time read. Got more out of it this time.

The People's Tycoon (Ford) by Steven Watts - I love reading about businessmen from this age

Scrum by JJ Sutherland Jeff Sutherland - good read for development teams

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#113

Post by todd8 »

neilsharma wrote: post #97

"The Righteous Mind" - Jonathan Haidt. This book helped me understand conservative thinking, made me less heated in my opinions, and provided a convincing framework for me to understand moral arguments "Emperor of All Maladies" - Siddhartha Mukherjee. An excellently written history of cancer. "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" - Lansing Alfred. A true story of one of the last great explorations man has taken

I just want to add that for a cross country drive, there is no better audio book than "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage". The audio version is absolutely gripping; the suspense is incredible, more so because of the strict linearity of the story as audio (no peeking ahead). I also liked "Into Thin Air" on audio.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#114

Post by Maultasche »

r3bl wrote: post #81

I've started keeping a file on my GitHub account where I'm listing every book I have read (or at least remember reading). Most of those listed there I have read in 2015 (there's also a score next to each one): https://github.com/aleksandar-todorovic/notes/blob/master/00... Unfortunately I am quite a bit behind the goal I gave to myself (14/25 at the moment).

I started doing something like this, but then I discovered goodreads.com. I use it to not only keep track and rate what I have read, but to keep a list of books I want to read. It's probably nearing 300 items by now.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#115

Post by randcraw »

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #82

Books I'm glad I've read: The Inner Game of Tennis Impro by Keith Johnstone Seeing Like a State The Timeless Way of Building Linear and Geometric Algebra by Alan Macdonald Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (read this one thrice) The Tao of Pooh Science, Strategy and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd The Drama of the Gifted Child Interaction Ritual What Do You Say After You Say Hello? Of niche use: Mathematics: its…

What did you think of MacDonald's book? Did you feel the content could have practical use to you? I'm intrigued, but reluctant to invest the time/effort if the topic has only theoretical implications.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#116

Post by DyslexicAtheist »

1812Overture wrote: post #107

Dune by Frank Herbert- I'm one of the few people on Earth who enjoys the David Lynch adaptation so I finally had to get around to reading the book. Kind of awkward stylistically and structurally but a lot of fun. Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen - It's seemed to me that there are political philosophies that focus on economic needs and those that focus on personal freedom. This is the best I've read at uniting th…

agree on Taleb Antifragile and it is an awesome book but oh man what an angry person to follow on twitter or facebook. he is really becoming annoying and breeds the same character in his followers which is quite a shame considering the potential of his ideas.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#117

Post by ThrustVectoring »

randcraw wrote: post #115
ThrustVectoring wrote: post #82

Books I'm glad I've read: The Inner Game of Tennis Impro by Keith Johnstone Seeing Like a State The Timeless Way of Building Linear and Geometric Algebra by Alan Macdonald Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (read this one thrice) The Tao of Pooh Science, Strategy and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd The Drama of the Gifted Child Interaction Ritual What Do You Say After You Say Hello? Of niche use: Mathematics: its…

What did you think of MacDonald's book? Did you feel the content could have practical use to you? I'm intrigued, but reluctant to invest the time/effort if the topic has only theoretical implications.

It's the kind of book that lets you solve the same amount of problems with much more concise mathematical knowledge and structure. I didn't have a pressing need for linear algebra, so I didn't get everything out of it that I could have, but overall it helped clarify the way I thought about many math concepts. For example, in two dimensions there is one direction for "sideways", so complex numbers have a one-dimensional vector `i`. In three, there are three coherent directions for "sideways", so quaternions have a three-dimensional vector `i`. If you have coordinate-free ways of thinking about linear algebra, you can treat both complex numbers and quaternions as "the same kind of thing" in many ways.

I especially recommend this book if you need mathematical elegance in order to learn things and have a low tolerance for explanations that amount to "that's just how things work, go memorize stuff".

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#118

Post by dllthomas »

Off the top of my head: reread "The Left Hand Of Darkness", "The Mythical Man-Month", and the end of "A Mote In God's Eye"; read "A Night In The Lonesome October".

All worth reading, the last probably the least enduring.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#119

Post by goddess_divine »

i read a shit ton of books, but only keep the ones i'd like enough to read again. New to my library this year:

the checklist manifesto

friday

the left hand of darkness

banker for the poor

iq52

the pragmatic programmer

star diaries

cat's cradle

the dead mountainer's inn

spanner darkley

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#120

Post by goddess_divine »

n3on_net wrote: post #26

There are several books I read, still want to increase my reading amount: 1. "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!", nice bio about Feynman 2. "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future", inspiring biography and business book. 3. "Apollo" by Catherine Bly Cox. Awesome book about Apollo Programm. Goes even in some technical details. 4. "Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies". Very go…

#8 is the only one I've read on that list. Thanks! I look forward to reading the rest!
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